Seema Kalia Still Hasn’t Seen Her Kids – A Depressing Update at the Three Year Mark

This is the update I never really wanted to write. I always hoped one day to have a happy family reunion picture to share with you all, a few quick words about courage and perseverance and then put this chapter behind me. Despite all the courage and perseverance Seema Kalia has displayed, we still seem stuck at the same place. I spoke with Seema recently to try and find out why despite all her efforts, she remains blocked at every turn.

I wrote about this case two years ago, already a year into this atrocious miscarriage of justice for Seema and her children. Three years in total since she last saw her children. As awful as that already sounds, it is still a little abstract. Think of it as six birthdays missed, three Mother’s days gone past, and countless other milestones parents get to experience without being able to contact her children. As someone who lost his mother to cancer when I was young, I feel great sadness for this lost time.

Apparently I was being hilariously naive though, thinking that the people not directly involved in the abduction would be as disgusted as I was with the immorality of these acts and want to see her children returned as soon as humanly or legally possible. Why I was so full of optimism despite being a natural pessimist is beyond me. So why have we come so far without this massive wrong being righted? Because we have people still playing politics with an issue of justice and human decency.

Not that she hasn’t had good people on her side. By all accounts she has had talented and honourable public officials and government employees fighting for the rights of her and her children. There were many legal aid lawyers who tried to help before being intimidated by the targets, and many sympathetic friends doing whatever they can for her. What she needs now is for the United States Federal Government to step in (or more likely step aside) and let the DOJ bring these cases out, allow them to drop this stifling secrecy so Seema can be reunited with her kids (and I can publish a much nicer update with happy reunion photos). Seema has worked hard and suffered much, it is time the government took up this heavy burden that should always have been theirs to bare and make things right.

It isn’t like it is news to the Department Of Justice that this has happened. They have already laid the corruption of the New York Justice System at the feet of former Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver. Having federal corruption charges filed against him in January of 2015 and subsequently resigning his position as Speaker, Silver still awaits trial. With the indictment of former NY Senate Majority leader Dean Skelos’ (and his son Adam), it is clear to most that the big fish, Gov Andrew Cuomo is the last felon standing.

According to Seema, Cuomo instructed Manhattan D.A., Cy Vance Jr. to arrange the retaliatory abduction of Seema’s kids through a new and dodgy judge named Gesmer. In addition to any number of Wall St. bankers and the law firm Wachtell Lipton, it is unknown how many arrests need to be made before the DoJ agrees to return Seema’s children to her after her three years of torment after having served as a Federal whistleblower.

Now more than ever is the time for any and all of us to help Seema cross this final hurdle. Seema’s son, Dravin turns 9 on August 24th. He and his sister, Lola were taken two days before his sixth birthday. Seema has not been able to see either of them grow into the incredible people they will no doubt become for the past three long years. We need to see her be at Dravin’s 9th birthday party.

If you have contacts in the U.S. Senate, Congress or The White House or the media, please forward this post to them and ask them to contact the DoJ and demand answers about this unspeakably abusive legal decision making. The DoJ may be tethered by White House staff looking to make an opportune media splash, so if you have a phone number for someone on the White House staff, now would be a great time to call them and help be part of making the world a better place.